Well, imagine to run errands the last day before "Los Reyes Magos" (The Magic Kings) in the capital of Spain with over 4 million people hysterically counting minutes and Euros... The combination is a dreadful experience! Not the least the change of currency alone!
I have already contributed to the flow of currency across boarders, and have been among the first to bring Portuguese Euros into Spain! The Portuguese Euros look nicer than the Spanish!
In neither of these countries are people accustomed to dealing with cents. On top, the Spanish have a difficult equation to deal with as 1 Euro is worth 166 pts. Hence, a confused man shown on TV was unable to understand that one Euro is not made up of 166 cents !
Confusion is every where, and several times have I gotten the wrong change back, and there are long queues in front of every counter and cash register. In addition, all prices have gone up, not only with the excuse of leveling prices to match the value of coins and notes.
However, in the middle of this chaos I managed to get my hair cut enough to put
off the traumatic experience
when I will have to cut it my self with a knife somewhere in the Pacific!
I now have almost everything I need for the trip -
It's just that I can't carry it.
Even though I am traveling as light as possible (no hair dryer, no fancy
creams, no high healed shoes...) I have decided that I have to make some
reconsiderations on what are actually the bare essentials. Only that I
thought I had already reached that limit!
Well, I will just have to set my priorities right and send some of the
stuff back home. Accordingly, after having used my jeans tomorrow, I will
put them in a package together with my belt (it has a heavy metal
lock!) and some other stuff, unfortunately including my 1.5 kg South
Pacific Sailing Guide book. It brakes my heart, but I reckon that
if I join a boat heading for the Pacific, they should already have some
kind of guide books them selves. If my one would have been indispensable,
I guess I should rather choose another boat!
However, I will still bring my dive gear and nail polish...
Black ;-)
Article added Jan 17
